Events

Join us for a special event celebrating the newest addition to the Bakery Square Public Art Program! We're unveiling a brand new work of art and inviting the community to meet the artist behind it. Stop by the Conservatory for a casual meet and greet complete with live music, sweet treats and complimentary pizza from Alta Via Pizzeria. 
 

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About the Artist

Jenna Boyles is a multi-disciplinary artist from southwestern Pennsylvania. Her work often takes the form of experimental instruments and sculptural installations made of collected material such as aluminum cans and discarded electronics. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Art and Technology Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2018 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2012.

Outside of Pittsburgh, she has exhibited and performed in Chicago, IL; Baltimore, MD; Omaha, NE; and Miami, FL. Her recent performances include the Bent//Broken International Circuit Bending festival and collaborative live improvisation at events hosted by Pittsburgh Sound Preserve. Currently, she is the Digital and Physical Computing Technician in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University and an Adjunct Professor of Art. She has also taught in the Art and Technology department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, New Media Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Audio Art and Acoustics Department at Columbia College Chicago.

In addition to her teaching and art practice, she is on the board of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards of Southwestern Pennsylvania and Head of Bout Production at Steel City Roller Derby where she also plays for the Steel Beamers.

 

Artist Statement

I am fascinated by how individuals and communities process, share and experience the amount of material they encounter on a daily basis. The story of our living in the world is not independent of the garbage we produce. Public events, house parties, and work days generate stacks of cans, burnt out light bulbs, and crates full of things other than the cartons of milk they were designed to transport. I pick up on the subtleties of the recent past to make sense of and question the present, imagining a future of creative closed loop consumption. Driven by a desire to collect and sort through both digital and physical refuse, a source of perpetual inspiration is the potential held within things considered "trash" or "obsolete."

Responding intuitively to shape, form, and color, I employ spontaneous play and meticulous organization to articulate the ubiquity and resonance of unwanted things. Through sourcing free material and recycling previous artworks into new forms, I joyfully defy landfills. I believe the current environmental issues we face as a global community must be addressed. As an educator, I am interested in how systems of waste in a creative learning environment can be reimagined and redesigned. As interfaces between humans and technologies meld together, I believe it is important to create opportunities to slow down, share knowledge and learn from one another.